“Peace. It eludes us, yet we long for the calm it brings. It’s the proverbial carrot dangling in front of our faces that we can never seem to reach. But is peace really so difficult to have? Everyone wants peace in the world and in their soul. However, it is easy to forget that peace cannot be achieved by anything we do. Only God can give it to us. He is the source.

Strong’s Concordance tells us that peace is the ‘safety, quiet, tranquility, contentment, and friendship with God especially in covenant relationship.’ ”1, 2.

Neglecting my relationship with Christ is at the root of most of my body image distortions. My relationship with God is the only thing that can keep me from looking to what the media throws at me as the “perfect” body type.

What if my concept of my “body type” is more a result of bad choices than it is on how my body was actually created to look? What then? Can I still have peace when I know I’ve made bad decisions which have resulted in my body being at an unhealthy weight? It seems I should just beat myself up emotionally instead of turning to God, allowing Him to forgive me, and moving forward with His peace to comfort me. That is what I deserve (at least it’s what I feel I deserve).

Is this the right thing to do? Is emotional self-mutilation the answer to allowing God to bring His peace into my life?

Maybe I should take David’s example. If anyone had a reason to “beat himself up”, it was him. Yet, he chose to turn to God. Psalm 4 is his cry to God in the middle of the consequences he endured regarding Bathsheba and Uriah. I must follow his example and also turn to the Lord and rejoice in His peace in the middle of enduring the repercussions of choosing food over Him.

I believe this is the key to finding peace in whatever body type God has given us. In the end, my relationship with Him is much more important than what people think of me and what my choices have been in the past. When I look at my situation from an eternal perspective, what my body looks like after I’ve achieved my ideal weight will not matter. The most important thing is knowing in my heart that I have obeyed Him and that I’m looking to Him for my fulfillment.

Comments

Sometimes we have to be still and God will give us peace. It is hard to achieve when we have all of the things blaring at us all the time, music, TV, phones, internet. He has to Make us lie down in green pastures sometimes. Very good points.
Jennifer (OBS group 30)

Our outward appearance matters not to the God who loves each and every one of us. We all struggle with one issue or another, be it weight, aging, or poor health, yet you’ve reminded everyone here that we can always turn to God for His peace.
Blessings, Jennifer!

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Whatever weakens your reason, whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience, whatever obscures your sense of God, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind, whatever takes away from your relish for spiritual things, that to you is sin, no matter how innocent it is in itself.